Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-05-20
FRIDAY MORNING, MAY. 20, 1887
TIE STATE DEBT NEGOTIA-
TONS CLOSED WITHOUT
STCCESS

pcint of view. She had full treasury,
was paying no interest, and with the most
insenious and persistent use of the Federal
eqrts, the creditors could only get $685.
Goa a year of coupons paid for taxes. She
w85 then. as she is to-day, comfortably
led, as far as her creditors were able to
aaect the situation. But for all that she
Agnted to have settlement and be rid of
ille harassing opportunities, a feeling
ssl Oh had strong admixture of desire
10 pay her creditors what she could.
There was but one way to pay her creditors
a4sg hsnq and that was by settlement
sn& the people would endorse. The other
wa had been tried twice and failed. When
5b funding bill of II was passed, the vo-
ter5 repudiated il -diEoo.lJ Unoy nad
,,nancesss che ballot-box. When the Nc.
guIi6cn bill of ~ was passed the voters
Sres6ed IL the same way at the first oppor-
IN Gy. and almost everybody in the State
ia learned by experience that it was no
rs going through the form of a settle
IdsuG unless ii was already ascertained in
Advance that ii met the view of the people
That view was that they could not stand
an more taxation; that all they wanted
s5asgssessasgs~o government and schools to go
81 snateyer surplus there was in the
~ es6 the present rate of taxation,
Agr it was one dollar OR million the
3sors might have. 1t was On this very
OF the matter that this conference
called, and on the suggestion by the
ss b3rs themselves that they would take
Che sarpiUs at the present rate of taxation.
n WI their Commission got to work how
] eq their translation of their proposition
Is: as widely different: they had meant, II
/ appeared, what surplus there was
after then had dictated certain raZeeing
OF 5he government expenses. Their sugges-
tions we're impossible of adoption. For
Instance, they thought the school money
could be reduced. 1t is the minimum
directed by the Constitution itself ano
canuot be lessened. They thought tht
asylum appropriations could be pared
down. Take the one nearer to us: six
years ago it had four hundred patients.
today it has six hundred. They had evi
IDENTIFY taken the appropriation bills OF
twenty years ago and without allowing
for increased demands on Virginia's rev.
enaes, had made an arbitrary reduction of
much of the old schedule.
In another respect the English Com
AeIssloners seem to have taken mistaken
view of the situation. They seemed under
tie impression that any settlement The
Virginia commissioners and legislature
would make, would be final; that the lead
ing men" Of the State could control The
matter, and that either political party
Eilab would assume the responsibility OF
She settlement adopted by the Debt Com
r0sssi3n would have sort Of feather in its
car which it would wear to victory. As
Gne h,story of the elections on the debt
question proves. all this was a sad error.
The Virginia Commissioners seem tc
nave stretched their authority to the
fa.EEaest limit in their anxiety 10 make a
settlement. Indeed wess think they went
gaveral thousand dollars further in ths
ma sr Of interest than the State could
sss made good. If the whole debt Of
Feinia was funded under the Riddle
ysxsser bill, and we taksusgQm her revenue
What 8 Lest W the recent drummer de
aisi9p and the percentage of coupons
shss lie creditors have been able to force
through, her Treasury will be over $780,
roo short of paying the 1864 900 of annual
interest under that bill. It would require
cat6ipg down in places to the quick to pay
the Riddleberger interest. How then
could any Virginia Commission make an
engagement to pay 1884 900 of interest?
1t would but be repetition of the old
story. But they could raise the taxes?
. ! es. but to pay what2 Not the Joint
Dent Commission settlement at 1894 600
That would be repudiated by the next leg
isiature before the increased taxes could
be collected. In brief there could nothing
be done for the creditors that the Virgin
ia Commissioners do not appear to have
tried to do. and even little more we
think than they could have carried out If
their offer had been accepted.
But what of the future Well, it will
be- pretty much like the past. There will
be plenty of work and a good salary for
.E hoyall; plenty Of money in our Treas
large reduction OF tax IS if the lagis-
iaeola Is wise, no interest paid, in short
all the benefits and all the evils of an IN
settled debt. One good result will have
come from this conference; the people now
kn0J0 what the creditors want. Those
: WHO nave been using coupons to "bring
She debt question to a crisis'' now know
o,rE 30 roic f. frn
concerned, means an increase of taxation
OF Nc settlement. There can be no plea
Of ignorance on that score hereafter.
4-4-----
fiQrFously interviewer with this subject
iGst at this time, comes the death of
Justice Wood Of the United States Su-
preme Court. The worry that Virginia is
now undergoing at the hands of U. S. Cir
elsat Judge Bond, comes from decision of
5bst hgh tribunal completely ignoring the
existence of the Eleventh Amendment
which forbids bringing suit against a
St&te. The court stood five to four-for
ti8e decision, Justices Mathews, Fields.
Harlan, Blatchford and Woods; and |
agaipss it, Chief Justice Waite, and Justi- |
ees Bradley, Miller and Gray, One JUS
tice Teting the other way would have |
changed the whole situation of the Vir- |
gin debt, by restraining the interference
of the Federal Courts, as, indeed, the
change of one Justice athews-from a
decision given but a year before, had
0rough5 it about. Justice Wood, who
died on Saturday last, is put down from
5he fifth Circuit which is composed OF
fseFgia, Florida. Alabama. Mississippi.
louisiana and Texas. and if the USUAL |